Aston Villa manager Dean Smith’s team left him snarling after a 2-0 loss at Southampton on Saturday.
Villa remains a point above the drop zone after the loss, but could sit in the bottom three should Watford or West Ham get points later this match week.
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Out-attempted by a resounding 28-4, Smith wasn’t interested in hearing about the side’s League Cup Final date with Man City next.
“I am not bothered about the cup final next week, this was our cup final today and we were terrible,” Smith said, via the BBC. “Certainly some players have played themselves out of next week.”
Smith’s Villans should’ve carried more urgency given their next six PL fixtures. Leicester City and Chelsea start the run before a Newcastle pallet cleanser leads into Wolves, Liverpool, and Manchester United.
Instead, they were insipid.“We never laid a glove on them in the first 20 minutes. I try to defend the players but today was not good enough. They were miles off it in the first half. A bit better in the second half. It was a game that could have been won but we didn’t create enough and didn’t defend enough. They were deserved winners.
“We can’t keep talking about getting good starts. Not starting well is a concern. We can’t play that bad again. It gave me a lot of heart seeing them against Tottenham but today was dreadful.
Villa are too talented to go down in theory, and the Midlands set will love its day at Wembley Stadium next weekend. But Smith’s men are still in a position to be competing in the Europa League and the Championship. Wild.
Here are a few more Smith thoughts, transmitted via our own Joe Prince-Wright at St. Mary’s.
👀 Dean Smith on Aston Villa at Southampton: "My feelings are embarrassment. It was a dreadful performance. We never competed well enough, never showed enough desire to get on the ball. The thing that hurt me the most was the lack of fight. That is the lowest of the low." #AVFC
— Joe Prince-Wright (@JPW_NBCSports) February 22, 2020